AMD shows off 32-core Bulldozer server

AMD demonstrated a 32-core Bulldozer server at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) as the Inq reports:

At AMD's ISC stand one could find several 2U and 4U servers built with older Opteron chips, but it was a 1U pizza box server made by Supermicro that housed two 16-core Bulldozer chips running live demonstrations of POVRay. This is the first time that AMD has publicly displayed its next generation Opteron processor, codenamed Bulldozer.

The chaps manning AMD's stand said that Bulldozer still has a Q3 2011 launch date and, judging by the fact that it has started to display working machines, we can assume that timeframe is not too optimistic. Asked whether AMD will be coming up with a Llano style Opteron featuring an accelerated processor unit (APU), AMD told The INQUIRER that "an Opteron APU still at least two years off".

Supermicro's 1U dual socket Bulldozer server packed in 32 cores, with space for an accelerator card. AMD said that other vendors are managing to put four sockets into a 1U server, resulting in a very impressive 64 scalar processing cores in just 1U. Although it wouldn't release exact thermal design power figures, AMD said that those will be the same as its Magny Cours Opterons'. The 16-core Bulldozer chips should once again put pressure on Intel's Westmere EX processors.